Top the search ranking with Google Panda

Google’s latest algorithm update will penalise low quality web content. Lisa Myers, CEO at Verve Search, explains what the changes mean and how you can avoid poor search listings

The Google Panda update was rolled out in the UK in April this year and has been headline news ever since. Google typically rolls out algorithm changes to their organic search engine listings several times a year, in fact minor updates are done daily, but it’s a long time since an update has caught this much attention in the digital world.

The update was made to make sites with low quality content less visible in the search results, and to improve the rankings of sites with high quality original content. It has affected around 12 per cent of the total search result and is one of the biggest updates Google has carried out in recent years.

Although the update is generally being perceived as a ‘punishment’ for websites with low quality content it is just as much meant to be a boost for websites that do provide high quality content.  
Google’s sophisticated update analyses a website’s quality based on several new factors but more importantly it’s an update that has upgraded the way it analyses factors that have been part of the algorithm for years, too.

1. Duplication
In the centre of the new update lies the issue of duplicate content. Do you have mass-produced content or is it sourced out to lots of websites or other pages of your own site? Or do you have pages that are partly or entirely ‘stitched’ together from other pages or sites? If so, you might be affected by the update as heavily duplicated content is a big signal for a low quality site.
But it is not only duplication that could be a problem. The Panda update also seems to penalise a site if it has lots of pages that have no incoming links. 

2. Originality and value
Is the content on your site original or has it been copied in large parts from another site? Not only will this get you noticed in all the wrong ways, you’ll also need to consider the originality of the facts you publish – this is another thing to be picked up as part of the Panda update. It’s also widely speculated that bad grammar, spelling errors, typos and factual errors are now more easily detected by search engines and may flag you in the bracket of low quality sites. 

3. Trust factors
In the last year or so there has been a big change in the way that Google measures trust. As well as measuring trust in terms of incoming links to your site (also referred to as backlinks), there has been a big shift to include ‘social factors’. Measuring social impact isn’t as difficult as people think. Google can easily measure if there was a big discussion surrounding a URL on Twitter and Facebook for example. Further in-depth analyses could include how many times the URL was shared on these channels, and how authoritative the people were who shared it.

4. Ads
It is believed the use of extensive ads throughout your site might affect your rankings since the update. Aggressive ad placement, such as banners, adsense and ads within content, has long been known to scare off users. However, the Panda update means metrics such as ratio of ad content versus original content will now be measured. 

5. Brand authority
In a previous Google algorithm update (in 2009) nicknamed ‘Vince’, brand authority where factors such as volume of searches for a brand or domain name was measured. This factor is thought to be further developed in the Panda update.

6. User feedback signals
Another factor that has risen in the ranks is the importance of user feedback signals. In April, Google also launched a new search feature where Google account users can directly block a listing they find low quality or irrelevant in their listings. Although in order for such user feedback to have an impact it has to be reported in masses, this functionality will become more important in the future.

How to avoid an angry Panda
• Remove low quality content pages or pages that are buried far within your site with few links. Alternatively, exclude these pages from the Google index by giving Google instructions not to index these pages in the robots.txt file (all programmers will know how to do this).

• Do not create pages that are partly or wholly duplications of other pages; even if you slightly re-write pages or use different words explaining the same thing, Google’s sentiment analysis is smarter than you think.

• Avoid ads above-the-fold if possible and most importantly, check that ads or blatant paid-for content doesn’t outweigh the ratio of original content.

• Create original content and make sure you also link to trustworthy sites.

• Be vigilant with spell checks, grammar and so forth.

• Consider entering the social sphere such as blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn.

• For Google’s official tips for building a high quality website, visit  http://goo.gl/huekf
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